Why did Jesus upset Jewish leaders?

Answer 1

For the same reason that the Christians were angry at Muhammad and his teachings. They viewed them to be the incorrect way to do things and felt he would try to convince other people from the correct ways at the time. Obviously we see things differently today, but for the time, religion was a very important thing that even speaking against the major religion got you burned as a heretic.

Answer 2

There were several reasons the Jewish religious leaders opposed Jesus. They had gotten proud and arrogant, comfortable in their positions of honor (Matthew 23:5-7),viewing Moses and the Law as God's worship, adding their own traditions as they saw fit(Mark 7:5-8), wielding unjust authority and teaching falsehoods(Matthew 23:13), entirely forgetting the PURPOSE of the Law in the first place (Galatians 3:24-25). Jesus was the FULFILLMENT of the Law, the long awaited Messiah, and when he died faithful to God, he ENDED the Law Covenant to which the religious leaders were so attached (Colossians 2:13&14).

During his ministry Jesus outspokenly exposed their bad works(John 7:7) and reached the heart of many of the members of their synagogues, raising questions and drawing many away from the 'flock'. Because of all this, they accused Jesus of breaking the Law of Moses on several occasions, and finally figured out a way to get rid of him secularly on the grounds of subversive behavior, advocating nonpayment of taxes, and saying he was a king, thus rivaling Caesar....none of which was true. (John 18:36)(Matthew 22:17-21)(John 1:14)

After the resurrection of Lazarus, the Jewish religious leaders expressed their fear of loosing their positions, at :

John 11:48 ". . .If we let him alone this way, they will all put faith in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.. . ".(John 11:5-8, 45-53).

Jesus continued to preach against the teaching of the religious leaders, healing a man on the Sabbath:

(John 5:15-18) " The man went away and told the Jews it was Jesus that made him sound in health. So on this account the Jews went persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things during Sabbath. But he answered them: "My Father has kept working until now, and I keep working." On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God."

(Matthew 16:6+12)

Answer 3

Answer 1

The more influencial rabbis felt threatened by Jesus. They were hearing second-hand accounts from the multitute about his miracles, teachings and more importantly, his growing popularity with the people. So they used his own words against Him as a reason to eliminate Him permanently. Claiming to be God was considered heresy which was punishable by death. When Jesus said he was the son of God it sealed his fate.

Answer 2

Jewish answer: According to Jewish tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Torah-sages (Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others) were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundeds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.

The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:

Hecateus declares again, "what regard we (Jews) have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."

No one (even any who did hear of Jesus) - would have given heed to what was and is considered unacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with him soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

Jews do not believe that he is or was anything other than a regular human being. We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.

Here is a related topic:

The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach translates to "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had many meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about a moshiach.

This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach; however, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanakh.

The Jewish requirements of the messiah are:

* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6)

* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One." (Zechariah 14:9)

* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1)

* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 4

The Jewish leaders over many years had gotten away from much of the teaching of the Old Testament and had made very many man-made laws substituting them for the true word of God.

When Jesus Christ started His ministry He preached the true Word of God and lived a sinless live before all men. The Jewish leaders figured that Jesus was going to upset their apple cart and they would be not only be out of a job, but they would look like heretic's before the people and they would lose all the prestige and honor that they were used to getting. This was very upsetting to these hypocrites.

Not only did Jesus preach and live the truth be He performed many miracles to validate His ministry, something the Jewish leaders could not do, and Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, which made the leader's very mad.